MADE, an online store for stylish, affordable, and ethical maternity clothing is the brainchild of copywriter and editor Emily Morgan and the CEO of tech startup Nect, Jade Leong. “We have a lot of friends and family who are having kids. Talking to them, we realized there is a lack of great, stylish, affordable, and responsibly made maternity clothing available,” Emily explained.

MADE started their operations in January this year. They are working to produce their own collection for Spring/Summer 2016-2017 (southern hemisphere), which launches in October. Emily, from Perth, Australia, thought Freelancer would be the perfect platform to find the right skills they needed. “Being Australian, I liked that Freelancer has an Aussie founder!” she said.

MADE hired Italian freelance designer Silvia (Silviadzi5s) for several jobs through the Freelancer platform. Initially, they posted a project on the platform, wanting someone to conceptualize the first MADE label designs for their Spring/Summer collection. Silvia was one of the first freelancers to respond.

“Knowing Silvia had such amazing experience in fashion design is what attracted us to her skills. And then the fact [that] she is a Mum and has personal experience with maternity wear was the icing on the cake for us,” said Emily.

Instead of just working on three designs, Silvia delivered six, all of which are aligned with MADE’s aesthetic and style. Once MADE completed the sketches, they asked Silvia to develop Tech Sheets for their designs. They also engaged her to turn three of their own hand-drawn sketches into professional CAD drawings. She perfectly interpreted the designs, bringing to life exactly what the company had in mind to be clearly interpreted by manufacturers.

This project helped MADE become a reality. Emily shared, “Having your creative designs brought to life from someone on the other side of the world, and having complete trust in that person to deliver is pretty great as a new business co-founder!”

“I am based in Australia, Jade is in the US, and Silvia is in Rome. Her prompt responses and professionalism have made it feel like we are in the same timezone. I had a similar job quoted by a new designer for over four times as much locally!” said Emily.

“Friends and family have been pretty amazed at how quickly we managed to get our designs on paper in such a professional way, and I have no doubt that Silvia's work has been integral to us meeting our pretty fast collection deadline. This is the beginning of an ongoing business relationship with Silvia and we can’t wait to see how she interprets our mood boards to bring more of our designs to life in the future,” Emily concluded.

MADE is now in the process of working with their manufacturer to source textiles to be ready for the Southern Hemisphere Spring/Summer season.

I run International Marketing Communication campaigns at Freelancer.com, based in the London office. I also lead Freelancer's Case Study Program, where we write inspirational success stories of employers and freelancers around the world. When not busy working or organising tech & design networking events, I enjoy exploring the globe.